Verona

Verona is Veneto's second largest city after Venice, and gives that tourist destination a run for its money. The town is filled with ancient Roman ruins and complexes like Castelvecchio (above), built in the 1300s by Verona's great family, the Scaligeri.

Adjacent to Castelvecchio is a bridge the Scaligeri built to escape Verona if the population revolted. It was destroyed by the Nazis in WWII and rebuilt afterwards.

The Arch of Gavi is also adjacent to Castelvecchio. It was commissioned by the Gavi, a Roman noble family in Verona, in the 1st century A.D. Napoleonic French troops destroyed the Arch, but it was also rebuilt by the Veronese.

The Castelvecchio Museum, in the castle, houses a variety of Medieval artifacts from around Verona.

This is the best Medieval bas-relief horse I've seen.

Nice organ.

One of the Scaligeri symbols is a fighting dog, a Lombard symbol.

Another is a ladder, which is on their crest.

Some of the rooms in the castle are painted as they would have been in the 1300s.

When you really feel the music.

A statue of Mastino II della Scala (Scaligeri), 1351. He is portrayed as a winged, dog-faced knight like the Lombards, who ruled from Verona in the 500s. His horse has a pretty good hat too.

These buildings have an impressive facade.

The Porta Borsari is in downtown Verona. It was the main entrance to the city in the first century A.D.

This is the entrance to Corte Sgarzerie archeological area. There are ruins of a Roman temple under this old building/restaurant.

Wall paintings, the Lion of St. Mark (Venice ruled Verona for 400 years), and the Torre dei Lamberti, built in the 1400s.

The Scaligeri tombs are unusual above ground sarcophagi that serve as monuments to the Scaligeri rulers of Verona. They are adjacent to the Santa Maria Antica Chapel, built in the 1100s.

The tombs were built in the 1300s.

Verona is surrounded by the Adige river. Pictured is Castel San Pietro, built by the Austrians when they controlled the city. They also built a series of forts around Verona, since it was a defensible western limit of their empire in the 1800s.

The Castel San Pietro sits above the ruins of a Roman theater and an old monastery that is now a Roman archeology museum.

The monastery/museum.

Verona, like many other cities in Italy, also had a Palio.

Roman weights made to look like heads.

Old chapel with Mosaics. The monks researched and looked after many of Verona's Roman artifacts.

The monastery has excellent views of the city.

We ate at Antica Bottega del Vini for dinner, one of the most historic restaurants in town.

It has a great ambiance, a massive wine selection in a book bigger than the bible, and the food is not bad either.

The Verona Arena was originally built around 30 A.D., and reconstructed in the 1800s for opera performances.

We saw Aida in the Arena. There is an opera festival every summer in the Verona Arena.

Pula

Pula, Croatia is the largest city in the Istria region. It has served as an important Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, and Austrian port. The Arch of the Sergii was built by the Sergii family ~30 B.C. to commemorate family members who fought in the Battle of Actium between Augustus and Mark Anthony.

Croatian McDonalds is pretty good. The burgers have whole-wheat buns!

A mosaic unearthed next to a parking lot.

Pula still has a massive port and shipbuilding industry.

Every park should have ancient Roman columns lying around.

The Temple of Augustus, built around the same time as the Arch of the Sergii, stood as testament to the first Roman God-Emperor's greatness.

The Communal Palace next to the temple used a wall and some stone from another part of the ancient Roman temple complex.

There is an enormous tunnel complex under Pula where its citizens were able to seek shelter during the World Wars.

It's a great place to beat the heat.

More random ruins around town.

Pula is home to an impressive Roman amphitheater built during the first century of the Roman Empire.

The Venetians built a fort in Pula to combat Uskoks, Croatian pirates.

It has some of the best views of Pula's naturally enclosed harbor.

There is another small Roman theater next to the fort.

Pula Demons, the local soccer hooligans, have some pretty good graffiti.

We watched Croatia make history by qualifying for the World Cup semi-final.

After the last penalty kick, the flares were lit and the celebration began.

If you drove down this street, you had a bad time.

The stream of people was endless.

Go Croatia!

Dvigrad is a medieval ruin 30 minutes north of Pula.

It was inhabited for over 700 years before being decimated by the plague, malaria, and Venetian-Austrian conflicts in the 1600s.

Inland Istria would be difficult to navigate.

Medieval oven

The view of the castle is excellent driving over the bridge.